Blog Post

Cobb had been able to sneak away while the Union troops were raiding his farm in Montgomery County. His knack for slipping past Union troops unnoticed was surprising, considering he was described as a “mountaineer… forty-five years old- six feet tall, symmetrically formed, and weighing about one hundred eighty… His hair [hung] down to his shoulders, and his face… covered with beard… reaching to the waist. His eyes [were] grey and piercing. He look[ed] but little like a military man.” Add to this description the fact he had only one arm, and on the stump he wore a metal hook, according to tales, and the image one has scarcely creates the picture of a Civil War soldier.

From July 1861 through October 1862, Alvin Cobb, and the men with him, participated in a great many clashes. After that, though, Cobb was engaged in actions that were recorded. After the war, he went to Indian Territory and by 1885 was recorded as living in California.